Thursday, September 11, 2014

Don't Keep Him a Secret!

Does God need us to speak on His behalf? NO! God does not need us, He longs for us to love, honor and obey Him with a glad and grateful heart. Look into the mirror without Jesus in your heart and view an empty soul. His reflection is what we want to see, so that through us He can attract others to Himself. Our light, our smile is how God uses the gifts He has given us to gather souls, that are attracted to our story. "For if YOU remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the lost from another willing servant." Spiritually we are the adopted children of God. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, the Holy Spirit completes a transaction of adoption. We are secured by the supernatural GLUE of the Trinity! God is our Abba Father and we have immediate access to the King of the Universe for comfort, direction and provision. It is NOT a SECRET that God used ADOPTION of ORPHANS to demonstrate His love for those without direction from parents. In Deuteronomy 14:2 God explains His relationship to His people, Israel. Adoption in the new testament (Galatians 4:3-7 and Ephesians 1:1-6) describes the believers relationship with the Lord. Mordecai adopted Hadassah and became her legal guardian. Joesph adopted Jesus as his son. Moses was adopted by Pharaohs daughter. In this life we have conflict, pain and weeping, God shows us His ways. He allowed weak little Hadassah to go through the horror of losing both parents as a child so that the lost, the orphans would have hope --- God placed an insecure orphan as Queen! Today people need to be told that God allowed 911, Katrina, and the devastation and death in Haiti in 2010 --- as a wake up call, that prophecy is being fulfilled before our very eyes! God does NOT keep secrets. His word is His breath, it is the truth. His warning repeats many times in history. NO GIVEN place or position, NO president, king, queen or person who has been adopted by God, will ever be exempt from the expected obedience, or important responsibility to respond to His call. Our role is to be responsible to represent His Name with our obedience. His promise is to fulfill His responsibility as our Father, as His word states. God our loving Father protects, provides and disciplines those He loves. What disasters are happening in frequency and intensity are the exact consequence of our disobedience to His word. "Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience" (Colossians 3:6) Has the Holy Spirit impressed upon your heart, has He spoken to your spirit, has He called you to speak to your neighbor, your child, your mate about their choices, about His ways? Did you obey? Or did you deny Christ and choose to remain silent out of fear of being named a lunatic? God desires that we live aware of His presence, and that we acknowledge Jesus as Lord. God did not cause the economy to fall, we did! God did not protect us from 911 or Katrina because we threw God out of our schools, our government, our courts so that the people could rule! God sent us a Helper, a Counselor-- but we call on the evening news for direction! "Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another." Colossians 3:12. God made Himself known to Moses with a burning bush. God made Himself known to Abraham at age 85! We are never too LATE, too young (Esther) or too old (Abraham) to turn off the TV and listen to God! Today God makes His power known to all, each night, in the silence of the stars above. He filled the waters with fish, He created beautiful sunsets that take our breath away. God makes Himself known to us through His living and active Word --- What is He saying to you? Our prayer time is not just to tell God what we want, it is a time to listen as we expect to hear His voice. God revealed Himself to the Samaritan woman at the well. He let her know that He knew her broken heart. Has He revealed sin in your life? Then has He used you to speak to someone and give them hope? God used the sin filled Samaritan woman, who admitted her errors. He sent her out into the world "Go and sin no more" She sparkled with relief, she was raced back to town and boldly spoke of the power and compassion of Jesus. God desires to reveal Himself, His plans, His destiny to all who believe in Him. He longs to hear from us, and for us to listen to what He points out in our hearts. He wants us to trust Him, to have faith in His way, and His plan for us. Do we trust God like Joshua, Daniel, Moses and Esther did? Do we believe that our temple, our soul is where the Holy Spirit dwells? Approach God with reverence, bow down to the King. Let us take our shoes off knowing that we stand on holy ground, the earth that He created for our pleasure. When we remember who Jesus is, and what He has done in us, and who we were when we met the King of Kings, that should be enough to have us bow before Him with sincere gratitude. Think about all the ways that God reveals himself to us in surprisingly intimate ways. Do tears roll down your face when you sit quietly in reflection of all He has done for you. Do goose bumps suddenly prickle while singing praise? IF we are aware of His Presence, IF we go to Him and confess our grievances, the edge we feel, the weariness, our anger. IF we cry out to Him and seek Him above all else...He desires to meet us there and He will happily reveal Himself to those who listen and wait. (1 Cor 1:26) "Brothers think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." "He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things---and the things that are not---to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us Wisdom from God---that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written:'Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." Now is the time to go tell somebody what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you! "YET WHO KNOWS whether YOU have come to the Kingdom of God for such a time as this... a crashing economy, a weakend Haiti, a flood, a fire, a devasting disease...DO NOT keep JESUS a secret!